Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Traditions of outdoor cultivation of edible fungi in woodland conditions have been practiced in North-East Asia for centuries. This outdoor mushroom production method was exported to North America almost 40 years ago and provides an additional income for small-scale forest farmers, the agroforestry practice closest to woodland conditions. However, in any agroforestry system with suitable conditions mushroom production can be included. Besides production of edible fruiting bodies, mushroom production has the potential to create local waste management with by-products from Agriculture and Forestry. The by-product from mushroom production called Spent Mushroom Substrate (SMS) can be used as a biofertilizer to close the loop of a circular food producing agroforestry system. Additionally, mushrooms intercropped with vegetables and trees has shown to increase soil fertility, biological activity, and main crop quality. The interest in mushroom productions is increasing in Sweden with hobby-cultivators growing a wide range of native and foreign species but no upscaled outdoor mushroom production exists. In Sweden, a rough third of the most common 100 native edible mushrooms are saprophytic with 15 species used by hobby-cultivators. All these saprophytic mushrooms could theoretically be used for outdoor production within temperate agroforestry systems. Four of the potential mushrooms are Lions Mane (Hericium erinaceus), Oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus), Enoki (Flammulina velutipes) and King Stropharia (Stropharia rugosoannulata). All these native mushrooms could be used in forest farming practices. The mushrooms requirements for shading and wind protection can be provided in intercropping with crop plants of varying heights. This sheltering from plants could be provided in the agroforestry practice alley cropping. Potential mushrooms for alley cropping or intercropping within alley cropping are King Stropharia, Oyster and Morels (Morchella spp.). Further research and try-outs are needed to understand which native or non-native mushrooms could be used within agroforestry in the many varying conditions of Sweden.